Jesus was not a good-looking man. The Bible tells us so. But, that seems consistent with every other part of His life, too. He started off in a manger, born into one of the poorest families in Israel. The Bible also says He was despised,
and rejected by men. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. In building terms, He was the “stone that the builders rejected”. Initially, there was nothing about Him that was appealing. So, virtually every painting you have ever seen depicting Him, classic or modern, is very incorrect!
But that is often how we Christians like to portray Him and his work. We have depicted him as a
handsome man. And, because he performed miraculous deeds that met the needs of people when He walked the earth (proving that He was who He claimed to be, the Messiah), we too often expect that of Him today. Too often, that is how we portray him to others. We want all of the good things associated with Jesus, but reject the things that are difficult. This is one reason why there are so many pastors and leaders who are preaching a “health and wealth” gospel. Or, offering incentives to attend their
church. Or accepting certain cultural norms, bending and twisting the scriptures to help it be more palatable to the world. We want Christianity to be “progressive“. We dress up Christianity, playing only on the “good“ aspect, but shying away from the responsibilities and sometimes the pain of true discipleship. We want the easy way, the comfortable way. We want all of our prayers to be answered the way we want them answered.
This is not biblical reality. This is a re-fabrication of the truth that stems mainly from biblical illiteracy, one of the most terrible truths about Christians today! To me, this is a little bit like the theory of Darwinian evolution. It’s a façade that covers up reality. It’s a short-circuit. It’s the emperor who doesn’t realize he doesn’t have any clothes. It requires no real commitment, but a huge
amount of faith. But, it grants to the believers of this religion a free license to live anyway they want.
Not so Christianity! It’s work! It’s sometimes hard! If we’re tempted to dress it up in any way, to make it more convenient for ourselves and attractive to others, we’ve started down yet another false road, just like evolution.
